Music

A slot on the 1994 Lollapalooza lineup was almost relegated to Green Day‘s boulevard of broken dreams when festival founder Perry Farrell supposedly tried to block the band from performing — after which frontman Billie Joe Armstrong and his bandmates eventually got the last laugh when they did end up joining the tour 30 years ago.
In excerpts from Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour’s new book, Lollapalooza: The Uncensored Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival, published by People on Tuesday (April 8), the “American Idiot” singer recounts the story of how Farrell — apparently writing the punk rockers off as a “boy band” — pushed back against Green Day’s inclusion on the ’94 traveling festival’s bill.

“It was going to be [Japanese noise band] Boredoms on the first half, and us on the second half as the opening band,” Armstrong recalls. “And then all of a sudden, [Farrell] comes back in and he’s like, ‘I don’t want them on the bill.’”

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Calling Farrell’s dislike of his group “disappointing,” as Green Day had looked up to the festival pioneer, Armstrong adds, “I think that made us want to play even more, actually, because we wanted to prove that he had his head very far up his own a–.”

“I can’t think of a single time that Perry pushed back or vetoed a band — except for Green Day,” remembers stage manager Rubeli, who eventually found a way to convince Farrell to let the group onto the lineup. “To Perry’s credit, I was able to go through [Green Day’s] history in the Bay Area and how they had released indie records and eventually he said, ‘Okay, they can do half the tour, but I want the Boredoms on the other half.’”

Lollapalooza would have been just three years old in 1994, with Farrell starting the now-iconic music event in ’91 as a small farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction that quickly evolved into what it is today: one of the world’s biggest annual popular music festivals with multiple iterations across the world. After finally winning their place on the bill, Green Day got the last laugh against Farrell when Armstrong dedicated the band’s Dookie track “Chump” to him onstage.

“I’m like, ‘I’m not going to take any f—ing sh– from anybody,” Armstrong recalls in Bienstock and Beaujour’s book. “I’m not going to take any sh– from anybody as much as Perry Farrell’s not going to take any sh– from anybody.’ He had minions that would come up and say, ‘Perry Farrell’s really angry that you dedicated “Chump” to him.’ And I’m like, ‘Tell him to stop acting like one.’”

“But I never met the guy until we played Woodstock ’94,” he adds. “He was there and we shook hands.”

Lollapalooza has come a long way since its days as a fringe gathering place for alternative rock and other developing genres. Some of the biggest names in music now play the event every year, with this year’s Chicago iteration expecting Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and Tyler, the Creator as headliners in addition to dozens more performers on the lineup.

And in 2010, Green Day’s beginnings with the festival came full-circle when the band headlined alongside Lady Gaga, Soundgarden, Arcade Fire, The Strokes and Phoenix.